Tips originally broadcast on December 5, 2008 The Small Business tips today will be about promoting from within. Find out what skills people use when they’re not at work. Determine if you can put those skills to use—in a higher position. In a small company you should understand your advantage: a better position to know what people’s abilities & interests are. Create career paths for employees. Your people need opportunities to grow and to stay interested. If an employee needs outside training for a higher-level job, pay for it. That will be cheaper than recruiting a new employee. Daily Overview: Find and utilize the skills your current employees have. Train them for what they don't have. It's cheaper! [Read Full Article]

Sure, you might not be able to get Lebron James to try out your company’s line of sneakers while he’s out on the court, but athlete branding by sporting goods companies isn’t the only way you can use the Olympics to promote your business. We know the Olympics in Beijing are huge, and that millions of Americans are watching. Why not leverage that interest for your own business? Here are five simple things you can do to promote or increase goodwill towards your small business while the Olympics are running.  Give customers the Olympics event schedule. Odds are, your customers in the store right now are going to go home tonight and turn on the Olympics. Odds also are that they don’t really know who’s going on at what time. Why not talk to your customers, and ask them which events they’re looking forward to watching? If they don’t know, you can create value for them by giving them a free schedule of the night’s events. It... [Read Full Article]